Bryson DeChambeau Explains How Tiger Woods Is A Model For LIV Golf’s Success Strategy

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced just before the new year that the self-imposed PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger deadline of December 31st would be extended. Both parties, the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) would work together to reach an agreement to bring the PIF on as minority co-investors.

This was a big moment in the world of golf that kind of got glossed over by the sports world due to the timing of Jay Monahan’s memo to PGA Tour members. It was on 12/31 which was an NFL Sunday, peak College Football bowl season, a holiday for many, and this allowed the news to sort of slip through the cracks at the PGA Tour punted merger talks down the line.

In the days since, Bryson DeChambeau spoke with SI’s Bob Harig for an interview where he outlined how PGA Tour integration cold work. Bryson DeChambeau also discussed how Tiger Woods, once the most popular athlete on earth, is (at least in part) a living model for LIV Golf’s path to success. DeChambeau told Bob Harig:

“But I also think there is a way to layer on a team aspect that creates another stream of revenue not only for broadcasters, advertisers, players. But I also think it will potentially bring new fans into the sport because of the team aspect. I’m a Cowboys fan because I live in Dallas and I’m part of the community. I don’t have to be a part of the sport to be a fan. I think that’s what is unique about this opportunity. We can be a fan of a team and not necessarily play the sport.

“It’s an opportunity to grow the sport. Tiger (Woods) was his own team. Everybody followed the sport even though they might not play golf because it was Tiger Woods. I think that is a small part of what LIV is trying to create. There’s more than that. But how the game comes back together? I think there’s an opportunity to lay on these signature events or designated events a team aspect to it. They could create another line of revenue for these tournaments.”

Bryson DeChambeau has to see the irony here, right? He’s using Tiger Woods’ immense success as an individual as the example for how LIV Golf fans would support a team.

In this thought experiment, Tiger Woods is still more popular with golf fans than any 3 or 4 man team of golfers on earth. Bryson’s point, it seems, is to create interest about an entity that reaches beyond the sport or league itself, and that’s a valid point.

Tiger Woods’ popularity was (is?) bigger than golf. But LIV Golf will need to do so much work, they’ll have to move mountains, in order to actually make the LIV teams popular with fans.

Bryson DeChambeau: ‘We need the game to come back together’

Elsewhere in the interview, Bryson DeChambeau spoke about Rory McIlroy’s recent comments and softened stance on LIV Golf. Bryson said:

“He realizes the game has to come back together. As do all of us. I’ve said from Day 1 I want the game to come back together. We need the game to come back together. Not just for ourselves to play against the best players. But for the fans to see us play against each other again. And for the game of golf to grow the way we know it can. I just wish people would have taken meetings in the beginning. It was always simple. Egos got in the way.”

I went back and looked at Bryson’s comments on LIV Golf and the PGA Tour from September 2022 when tensions were highest.

At that time, Bryson said “I personally believe that over the course of time they will come to a resolution. There has to be. It’s only in the best interest of the game of golf down the road. What LIV Golf has provided is something new and unique/different. And what that there’s going to be some disruption and some people aren’t going to like it.”

DeChambeau has been more diplomatic through the LIV Golf schism and potential PGA Tour merger than anyone, myself included, has given him credit for in the past. It’s evident that he truly believes that LIV’s team model has the potential to grow the game of golf. Whether or not that is true, however, remains to be seen.